Akinola: Lambeth Conference attendance 'is immaterial'

http://www.religiousintelligence.com/news/?NewsID=2361

[Religious Intelligence] 24 Jul 2008--One Rwandan bishop and five Kenyan bishops have broken ranks, defying their House of Bishops to attend the 2008 Lambeth Conference. However, no Nigerian or Uganda bishop has defied his church’s decision not to attend the every-10-year conference due to the presence of the American bishops.

“We’re sorry they are not here,” Archbishop Rowan Williams said, of the approximately 250 bishops from the four African provinces, Sydney and other evangelical dioceses who are absent.Initial claims that a Nigerian bishop had bucked his Church have proven false.

However, Archbishop Peter Akinola told ReligiousIntelligence.com the whole issue of who was or was not at Lambeth was immaterial. “At this point it is a non-issue for us. After Lambeth, any Nigerian who may have chosen to flout our provincial and collective decision will have to answer to the general synod. It as simple as that."

Access by the media to the gathering of bishops is sharply restricted, and the bishops themselves have scant knowledge of what is taking place. Unlike past conferences, there is no daily newspaper and what information that can be gleaned from official channels is available only to those bishops with laptops.